Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

genre: young adult

In a future where the seas have risen and we've stripped the earth of so many of its resources that we are forced to search and reuse, teenage Nailer is on "light crew." His job is to strip washed up old oil rigs of their wiring and useful parts. Life on his beach is precarious and violent. Jobs on light crew are hard to get and if you miss quota, you're out. Luck is on Nailer's side, though, more than once, and when he finds a seemingly wrecked and abandoned yacht - he thinks he's had his luckiest moment yet. It's what he finds inside that really picks up the pace in this story - and Nailer has to decide where his true loyalties are going to lie.

This was a great ride! Nailer is complex and conflicted - he wants so much to be strong enough to do things on his own but I loved that he realized how important it is to HAVE people. People you can count on. This book is a lot about loyalty and friendship - and what family really is. It deals with the topic of parental abuse with a firm hand - recognizing that the abused feels such hard and opposing feelings of hate and love and fear at the same time. But it's also about a future time that's a scary and violent place to be that made me think about the road our civilization is on and how far off stories like this are from a future truth.

I like that this was a stand-alone book. I don't need a sequel or anything else. A thrilling ending to a nail-biter story.

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Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer by Warren St. John

genre: non-fiction, sports

This book personifies the reason why is why I am in a book group. I would have NEVER (see how that's in all caps?) have picked up this book. I am not a sports player. I am not a sports fan. I couldn't care less about football. Especially college football. Unless it's my alma mater, the Maryland Terps, in which case I might say "go Terps" when I find out they've won something. Just not my thing.

But this book? It digs deep, as it says in the subtitle, into the heart of Fan Mania. And Warren St. John, our tour guide into this land of manic fans, is an Alabama boy. That's the University of Alabama, the Crimson Tide. And he uses his own experiences and his own absolute devotion to "his" team as a springboard for finding out what it is in humans that makes us pick a side and then pour our heart into being a follower. What is it about the contest itself? The chance of winning? What are the intricacies of fan interaction and that "crowd mentality" that makes you hug or cry with complete strangers?

Truthfully, I was so worried about having to read this one and there is no doubt that some scenes of football action were skimmed, but overall, this was one entertaining and fascinating read. It reminded me a lot of the book Confederates in the Attic, which examines Civil War re-enactors. Rammer Jammer introduces us to some of the really interesting characters of Alabama fandom - his die-hard love of the Crimson Tide was his ticket to places and people that made this such an intriguing read. Especially all those RV fans, the ones that travel around to tailgate and watch - it's like it's own little culture.

I think honestly what I liked best is that he (our author) DID have a team. Even while looking at all these fans, he was psychoanalyzing HIS OWN SELF. Trying to figure out where the rush of absolute joy or the cloud desolation that can come from the outcome of a GAME. There was a great mix of his own experiences, history and sociology. I feel like my mind has been opened up to an entire new world - and I'm a fan of that.



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Nerds Heart YA Round 2!! Dark Titles :)

For the first time ever, I was a judge for a book tournament, Nerds Heart YA. It was super fun and I'd like to give a shout out to my co-reader, Nicole over at Booked Up!


For Nerds Heart YA Round 2, we (Book Nest and Booked Up) had to decide between The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk and Dark Water by Laura McNeal. We could say something clever and witty about the coincidence of title names handed down to us from Round 1, but we’ll leave the writing to the writers today. Instead, please read our reviews to get a summary of each book and what we thought of them:

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (Booked Up’s review / Book Nest’s review)
Dark Water by Laura McNeal (Booked Up’s review / Book Nest’s review)

Overall, we both felt that Will, the deaf and overweight high school student in The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, was a stronger and more well-defined main character (especially in terms of underrepresented groups in young adult fiction) than Pearl of Dark Water. However, we decided that Dark Water was the stronger book when viewed as a whole story - that her relationship with the migrant worker Amiel and their experiences created a deeper, more literary and more viable plot.

SO! Dark Water moves on to Round 3! Good luck to the next round of judges!

Dark Water by Laura McNeal

genre: young adult

In Southern California, there are groves and fields of fruit trees. The line between those who own the groves and those who work on them is distinct and unwavering. There can be respect and there can even be kindness, but romantic love? It doesn't even need to be said that such a thing doesn't really happen.

Except, for Pearl, it does. Not that Pearl OWNS the avocado ranch, of course. That's her Uncle Hoyt. But she still knows better than to tell anyone about Amiel, the apparently mute migrant worker that she is mysteriously drawn to.

I'm having a hard time sorting my thoughts about this book into something coherent. It was just so lovely. The language, the story - even the foreshadowing, which I normally hate, served its purpose beautifully. I loved Amiel as a real person with talents and fears - you ache for him and for Pearl's own troubles. So many parts of young adulthood are part of Pearl's tale - relationships with parents and family, falling in love, friendships changing, decisions and very real consequences. All of this happens under the backdrop of a very sunny SoCal, green and verdant giver of life as well as the dry tinder box that can snuff out that same life with a breath of flame.

I read this in a day, couldn't put it down. If you love young adult literature, read it.

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The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk

genre: young adult

Will Halpin is taking a serious leap - from a Deaf School into a "Mainstream" School. Because of his excellent lipreading skills as well as his detestation for his hearing aids, Will lives in a silent world. This does NOT make it easy to fit into a gossip-filled, loud and chaotic high school. It also doesn't help that he's, uh, hefty. Plumpish. Big boned.

But he does it. He goes to class and is more than a little bit observant of his peers - his snarky and sometimes hilarious notebook slowly begins to fill with his thoughts on his new teachers and classmates. Despite his hesitation with people, Will cannot avoid a new friend that will soon be his partner as they investigate a crime involving a student at their school.

Will is a pretty hysterical and self-depreciating narrator. It's a lively place inside his head and I really liked all the texting conversations between him and his friend Smiley. I enjoyed watching him sort out his world and it was interesting to be in situations where we don't know what's happening because Will doesn't - I liked reading the experiences of a deaf character. One other thing that made this book intriguing was the coal mining secondary plot, since this book takes place in the hills of Pennsylvania.

Overall, this book was fun to read but I'll be honest, the whole "crime" thing caught me off-guard and it was hard for me to believe. It made the book take such a different turn and while I liked having Will's deafness be an asset to solving a crime, I just never really believed it. What I did believe, though, was that Will is an unlikely hero that a lot of teens will relate to as an outsider with big dreams.

note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

genre: young adult

If a new virus wiped out the fertility of everyone over the age of 18, what do you think would happen? Would our society start paying teenagers to have babies so that the world would continue to be populated? That's the premise of this book - teenagers are selling their wombs and their fertility to the highest bidder and for some reason that's never really explained, IVF technology isn't the option. Only "bumping" is. You hire the best genes you can and then pay for a baby to be conceived and carried for you. Pregnancy is THE coolest thing - and so is the process of creating a "preg."

Sixteen year old Melody has spent her whole life preparing to create the perfect pregnancy but when an identical twin suddenly drops into her life, from a crazy religious sect, no less, things get complicated. REALLY complicated. Harmony has a story of her own and despite her love of God and desire to live a sin-free life, living in Melody's world gives her opportunities that even she has a hard time resisting. In a baby/conception/pregnancy-crazy world, these sisters have a lot to learn about each other - and about themselves and what they really want.

It's an interesting premise, isn't it? Teens being the only ones who can get pregnant? I really thought it was and the book is well-written, it's definitely a page-turner as we switch between Melody and Harmony's story. Sometimes ALL the made-up slang got annoying. But honestly, it was a little uncomfortable to have sex and all the intricate details involved be talked about in such a blase and base way. Pop-culture in this book is absolutely obsessed with "bumping." T-shirts and music and school clubs, you name it -baby-making is the hot thing. So, while I liked the story, I'd be cautious about handing it to my own daughter - I'd avoid it for her until she was in her later teens, if at all.

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The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd

genre: young adult

In the very near future, Londoner Laura is keeping a journal while Britain begins some radical environmental changes. She’s now got a Carbon Card that she has to use for anything that leaves a carbon footprint and global warming has messed up the weather big time. All this is happening while Laura is just trying to live a normal life with her lunatic parents, pass her exams and be the bass player in a totally rockin’ band.

Laura’s diary is very British teen-speak. She’s snarky and brutal but I liked that you could tell that under that scratchy teenage exterior that she cares about her family and is scared by how things can change. It doesn’t even pretend to be anything other than a treatise on global climate change and how probable apocalyptic events could affect the life of just one person. Sometimes it felt a little forced and TOO “look how evil globalization and Big Oil are” but sometimes it felt very “we can fix this planet” and I think that’s an important message to give young adults. I laughed out loud a few times but not as much as I was hoping I would. All in all, I think teens might like it better than I did.

note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com